WFG RATING: A-

Cineverse, Bloody Disgusting and Screambox presents a Happy Fright Films production in association with Pink Plaid Productions. Directed by Sean Haitz. Produced by Sean Haitz and Ryan James. Written by Sean Haitz and Stephen Ward. Cinematography by Jacob Geimer. Edited by Courtian Gordon, C.J. Guerrero, and Ryan James.

Stars Aaron Prager, Austin Judd, Robert Dunne, David Vega, Mis Sadistic, Dana Kippel, Johnny Hoops, Edwin Neal and the voice of Allen Danziger. 

A serial killer finds himself a successful second job as a comedian in the latest film from Sean Haitz, the director of Big Top Evil.

Charlie is a serial killer who not only kills, but chops his victims up and uses their meat to make some great meatball subs. After killing numerous people, he finds himself enthralled with Chrystal Jennings, a local musician who was supposed to attend a music festival before being kidnapped by Charlie. While Charlie enjoys the pleasure of killing and making a success out of it, there’s something he is really wanting to do for a long time.

Charlie longs to be a stand up comedian. He decides to use his day job as a means to use as the output for his stand up act. When he has the chance to attend an open mic night at the local comedy club, he uses the act as the “cannibal comedian” and gets quite a welcome. When his act starts to get rave, he is excited to start living his dream and while he does find some bumps in the road, he still has Chrystal held captive in his home. WIll she be able to escape and will Charlie decide to go full time as a comedian and give up his cannibalistic ways? 

Sean Haitz has come up with something ingenious with this homage to the classic Texas Chain Saw Massacre and adds a very insane comic twist to things. To really amp up the homage, he has TCM actor Allen Danizger serve as the opening narrator and fellow TCM actor Edwin Neal makes an appearance here. 

Aaron Prager is both funny and insane as hell in the role of Charlie, our titular “cannibal comedian”. He brings both the carnage and the wits to the role, showing up sporting a Leatherface style mask at times when he unleashes his mayhem on unsuspecting victims. He can be said to be all of the Sawyer family rolled up in one insane package. He even has some allies in the forms of the local sheriff, played by David Vega and the enigmatic Eleanor, played by Mis Sadistic. 

What’s great is that once we see Charlie unleash on the stand up comedy stage, we get to see Prager at his charming funniest. We also see him sometimes work a charm full of puns when he holds Austin Judd’s Chrystal hostage and the two slowly bond despite the fact that he may end up wanting to roast her into chops. It seems like between Chrystal and the stand up comedy, there is an underlying surface indicating that Charlie has a sense of loneliness and perhaps sees Chrystal and the audience as a means to end that solitude and at one point, he even considers questioning if he wants to give up his day job and stick to stand up. 

Cannibal Comedian is wild, witty, and lots of gore-ific fun with a great performance by Aaron Prager. It would be great to see Charlie return for seconds!